Book 1: Outlander / Cross Stitch

[WatchrTina]

Thanks Keeta. So let's see if I'm remembering this correctly. Ian must have been one of the party that rescued Jamie from Ft. William and then they continue all the way on to France together (maybe stopping at the abbey for Jamie's lashes to head?) and then they go off and sign up as mercenaries. After a couple of years of adventures Ian loses his leg and Jamie brings him back to Scotland. But before he reaches Lallybroch he meets up with Dougal (not at Leoch -- Jamie hasn't been back to Leoch in years when he arrives with Claire) and that's when Dougal lies to him -- telling him Jenny got a bastard child off Black Jack and then was forced to take up with another English soldier for support due to the shame of being an unwed mother. So Jamie sends Ian home but doesn't go himself. Ian discovers the truth when he gets home but has no way to tell Jamie because he's off living rough and eating grass. Is that right?

So when Jenny says "Four years and no word" in the show I'm going to fan-wank and say she means "You never wrote! You sent no message to me with Ian!" And that it was during the 2-or-so-years of living rough that she began to worry he was dead. Or maybe she heard about the blow to the head and thought it had killed him. He was lying senseless in that abbey for quite a while just before the opening of the book.

Edited June 3, 2015 by WatchrTina

[Keeta]

I started to second guess myself, and found the following here http://outlanderlists.weebly.com/jamie.html:

Directly after his escape from Fort William Jamie is taken to Dougal's house to recover and Dougal tells him that Jenny is pregnant to Jack Randall and living with another English soldier (Outlander, chapter 16)

 

Once recovered Jamie goes to France where he spends two years fighting with the French army (Outlander, chapter 15) In October Murtagh takes Jamie to join the group of mercenaries that Ian Murray is serving with in France. Murtagh tells Jamie to stay with Ian and not to come back to Scotland.

[WatchrTina]

Thanks Keeta.   But your link doesna work.

[AheadofStraight]

It doesn't work because the : got included into the link:  http://outlanderlists.weebly.com/jamie.html

[WatchrTina]

Thanks ​AheadofStraight. Now the link works. Aaaand now I've learned that there is an Outlander novella called "Virgins" that deals specifically with Jamie and Ian in France. Oh brother. I thought I had read everything. Now I have to go find that.

ETA: it was published in a collection of stories & novellas called "Dangerous Women" that was edited by George R R Martin. It includes not only Diana's "Virgins" story but also a prequel novella to Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series. Well OKAY! Now I've got some summer reading.

Edited June 3, 2015 by WatchrTina

[WatchrTina]

Okay, I'm double-posting to talk about "Virgins", the short-story set during the time between Jamie's lashing at the hands of BJR and his bringing Ian back to Scotland after his leg is amputated.  I won't spoil it.  It begins with Jamie's arrival at the camp of some mercenaries operating in France.  Murtagh escorts him there but leaves him to enter the camp alone, knowing Ian is there and will look after him and also that young Jamie, with his muckle size will be welcomed in a way that dark, small, shifty Book!Murtagh will not.  I thought Jamie was taken to Dougal's house after the lashing to recover and I guess that does happen but he's not allowed to rest there long because when he shows up in France his back is still torn up, occasionally bleeding and, frankly, gross.  Thankfully someone with some medical skills enters the story and deals with the nasty situation.

 

I enjoyed the story because young Jamie is interesting, and sad, bereaved Jamie is touching. There's swashbuckling.  There's lusting after girls and discussions of under what circumstances fornication is a venal rather than mortal sin. There's a lot of talk of *ahem* gentlemen's equipment (by many many names.)  Jamie and Ian are revealed to have a surprising skill (they can read Hebrew).  And the story ends with a tie-in to something signficant that happens in The Exile (the graphic novel version that re-tells a good portion of Book 1 from other characters' points of view.)  I enjoyed it.  I liked seeing the daring duo of Ian & Jamie while both are still whole (though Jamie's not in top form for much of the story.)  It's nothing to get too excited about but I liked it.

Edited June 9, 2015 by WatchrTina

[nodorothyparker]

It took me a bit to remember where I'd seen someone mention the story "Virgins."  Not sure if this should go here or in the Lord John and other stories thread.  I recently came across a used copy of Dangerous Women, which also includes stories by Martin, Sharon Kay Penman, and S.M. Stirling, and finally got around to taking a look.

 

It doesn't break a ton of new ground since it's mostly a telling of events that are alluded to as having already happened when Outlander starts.  Still interesting though to get some of Jamie and Ian's swashbuckling past when they were both very young and mostly still whole and unencumbered.   It's kind of fun to see Ian before he's so very settled in life even if it was a little weird to hear him repeatedly refer to full grown 19-year-old Jamie as "the wean."
 

[Archery]

Diana Gabaldon may not consider Outlander an historical romance novel, but National Public Radio disagrees.  Check out Number 3 on the list.

 

[small voice]My other all time favorite, Flowers From The Storm, by Laura Kinsale, is also on this list.[small voice]

[Nidratime]

I'm sure that was voted on by romance fans, who love the Outlander series and always include it on these best of lists. So, NPR didn't put it there. (I know this because I'm on a romance novel message board that has an "annual"  -- or close to annual -- best romances poll and Loretta Chase's Lord of Scoundrels always wins even though I personally can't see why. Grrrr.)

 

ETA: Oooooh, I see the list is broken up into categories, so it's not all romances thrown into one list, but separate parts: historical, classic, paranormal, suspense, sci-fi/fantasy, contemporary, young adult, etc....

Edited July 29, 2015 by Nidratime

[Archery]

Well, yes and no. 

To complicate things, this list wasn't purely a popularity contest: Our expert panelists worked from your nominations to curate a final list that reflects not only your choices but the rainbow (OK, heavy on the fuchsia, but still a rainbow) of variety in the romance genre.

 

Readers nominated, but the panel of four decided whether the book met all of the criteria:

• a Happy Ever After where the protagonists have grown, over the course of the book, to be worthy of each other
• romance has to be the main plotline
• stands the test of time
• represents the best of the genre